I have 20G of ram shared between my Adobe apps, but I only have AE and PPro open. 12Gb left for other apps
Activity Monitor says I’m currently using 15.85 Gb of App Memory, 2.56 Wired, and 7.82Gb cached files.
Specifically it says that the biggest memory usage currently is 7.21G from AE. Next highest is kernel_task at 1.9, and PPro at 630Mb.

Any help or direction would be incredible – I’m getting to the end of my rope!
Cheers!

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the feedback. That's odd, because I know I've imported other mp4 files this way on different machines.
I just did a little test, and this is what worked and what didn't:

-exported my clip to ProRes 422 and imported to MochaAe - no problem
-Tried other mp4 files that were shot with the same camera (Sony a7S, 24p, 50mbps) - error - unsupported format (though like i said, I know i've used clips from this camera in the past)
-Tried other mp4 files shot with a different camera (Canon C100) - opened & cached no problem.
-Tired other .mov files shot with a Canon 5D - opened & cached w no problem.

I find it odd that some flavors of mp4 work and others don't. I'll also have to run these same tests on my home system (I'm at the office now) where - as I said - I'm pretty sure I haven't run into any issues.

Anyhow, thanks again. Annoying workaround for the time being, but at least it's only a few shots w this project. Cheers!

MP4 and MP3 -- even though it's audio -- are crap shoots to use in AE & Mocha for the same reasons. They're compressed, and they intermittently don't work.

You wouldn't understand why one mp3 is okay in AE but one isn't. And NO mp3 renders out audio reliably. The fix is simple -- don't use mp3's. I would say something a little different about mp4's, but just as cautious: at the first hint of trouble, transcode; spare yourself the grief.